Another interesting voice actor email....

[Matthew Hunter]

Here's something that might interest you guys. Bob Bergen, the modern voice of Porky Pig and, often, Tweety, found my Looney Tunes site, liked it, and emailed me! I've had some interesting conversation with him, and I'll ask him if I can share it with you...because if I can, there are some future plans from WB that may interest you. However, one thing I can tell you...did you know that there was actually a scene cut from "Space Jam"? Yes! And guess who was the character in question...Speedy Gonzales! Apparently, there was a very funny scene that Bergen voiced Speedy for, and it was removed for fear of offense. And I'm not making this up: know why there's not very much stuff to do with Porky Pig? WB was afraid for a while that Porky might "piss off stutterers". That's all I can tell you...for now :)
-Matthew

[Jack]

Sounds wonderful! I wonder what those future plans might be...

I've heard a lot about Porky and offending stutters, I remember reading an article a few years ago some people who were offended by him, and wanted WB to retire the character.


Jack :D

[Matt Yorston]

Oh, for Pete's sake. This is getting ridiculous. Just because Porky Pig happens to be a cartoon character that stutters does NOT necessarily mean he was automatically created to poke fun at people who stutter in real life. It's only a cartoon!!! Personally, I think mocking people who stutter was the furthest thing from the minds of Porky's creators.

All this PC nonsense is driving me mad. Pretty soon we won't see ANY classic cartoon characters if this trend keeps up. Absolutely outrageous!

[Emmanuel Cruz]

Originally posted by Jack
Sounds wonderful! I wonder what those future plans might be...

I've heard a lot about Porky and offending stutters, I remember reading an article a few years ago some people who were offended by him, and wanted WB to retire the character.


Jack :D

Do you know what website has the article?

[The Dork Knight]

Wow! I have a strange feeling Noel Blanc will e-mail you....

[Jack]

Originally posted by Emmanuel Cruz


Do you know what website has the article?
It was a printed article, I read it several years before actually getting the internet.


Jack :D

[Joe Tully]

Originally posted by Jack
Sounds wonderful! I wonder what those future plans might be...

I've heard a lot about Porky and offending stutters, I remember reading an article a few years ago some people who were offended by him, and wanted WB to retire the character.


Jack :D

These stutterers are offending intelligent people. Can we ban them?

[Pietro]

Originally posted by Matthew Hunter
And I'm not making this up: know why there's not very much stuff to do with Porky Pig? WB was afraid for a while that Porky might "piss off stutterers".

I heard the same thing from Greg Duffel, an animator for the more recent Looney Tunes, when I had a coversation with him. He said when his was working on "Superior Duck" he found this out. He said that now when Porky would appear he would stagger on a word and not stutter. Greg is hoping that someday cartoonists and animators will be able to get away with the stuff they did in the golden age.

-Pietro:D

[laugh4me]

Originally posted by Jack
I've heard a lot about Porky and offending stutters, I remember reading an article a few years ago some people who were offended by him, and wanted WB to retire the character.
Jack :D
There was a guy named Ira Zimmerman who was a lifelong stutterer who objected to Porky and made some noise about it in the mid-1990s. I remember him going on in some interviews about how he was made fun of as a kid because he stuttered and that schoolkids called him "Porky Pig" to tease him (sniff). Anyway he bought some Time Warner stock, stood up at a shareholders meeting one year and demanded they retire the character. He said something along the lines of "if your product is causing harm to children, shouldn't you recall it and retire it?".

I think that Warner Bros then did some educational stuff with Porky aimed at kids who stutter which was supposed to make them feel good about themselves and Zimmerman stopped pushing the issue.

For a different twist on this subject, check out the article from a website on stuttering - where someone has (over?) analyzed Porky's verbal condition. This article A CLINICAL STUDY OF PORKY PIG CARTOONS (http://www.elocutionary.com/Accessibility/porkyresearch.html) describes how medical personnel can use Porky's familar example as part of their therapy with stuttering children. Did you realize that [quoting the article] "Porky Pig stuttered on 30% of his spoken words in the 1948 "Daffy Duck Slept Here", 21.3% in "In Curtain Razor," 1949, 25.3% in "Often an Orphan," 1949, and 17.2% in the 1950 "Boobs in the Woods."

Neither had I.
You don't get such detailed analysis of cartoons just anywhere.... ;)

[J Lee]

It could also be noted that while Porky has trouble getting around his speech impedement during Western ballads, in 1958's "Robin Hood Daffy" he sings 'Barbara Allen' perfectly....

...for whatever that's worth...

[DR. BELCH]

--Jim Nabors, who spoke in one voice, but sang in another. Gaaaaaaaa-lly!

It's all about breath control, really....

Next they'll want to retire Daffy and Sylvester for being offensive to lispers....

[Matthew Hunter]

Sometimes stutterers end up with very good voices when treated...I read somewhere that James Earl Jones was originally a stutterer, and now he makes a living with his famous voice. Oh, and Bergen let me interview him via email, so he ought to send the answers to my questions real soon, and I should have that up on my site soon too. He's very interesting, and knows a lot about the inside workings of the WB cartoons studio. he also offered to let me post his email when I put the interview up, so if you're so inclined, email him.
-Matthew

[Cartman]

Originally posted by Pietro Shakarian


I heard the same thing from Greg Duffel, an animator for the more recent Looney Tunes, when I had a coversation with him. He said when his was working on "Superior Duck" he found this out. He said that now when Porky would appear he would stagger on a word and not stutter. Greg is hoping that someday cartoonists and animators will be able to get away with the stuff they did in the golden age.

-Pietro:D

Theses people need to be strong and just ignore those freaks who complain to them. WB is beginning to get as PC as a certain company I know of run by a dirty creep named Michael Eisner. ;)

[Randy Watts]

<< know why there's not very much stuff to do with Porky Pig? WB was afraid for a while that Porky might "piss off stutterers" >>

As someone why stuttered his way through childhood (but overcame it very nicely, thank you), I, for one, don't remember ever feeling that Porky Pig was mocking me. In fact, I don't remember ever really giving it any thought. I mean, that people stutter is just a fact of life.

Randy

[JaGSQ]

Chuck Jones, Mel Blanc, and other creators of Porky said they used the stuttering (As well as Daffy and Sylvester's lisping) to make the characters more defined and realistic. If you can see an ailment in a character, a flaw, you can relate to them because they're realistic. No realistic character is perfect. Wile E. Coyote is supposed to be a genius yet he is the one that falls for his own traps. Perhaps Chuck Jones said it best, "I can dream about being Bugs Bunny all I want but when I wake up I'm Daffy Duck."

[Patrick McCart]

Ira obviously had NO sense of humor.

I used to stutter when I was a child (took speech classes to improve my v-v-v-v-v-v-talking.)

I d-d-d-d-d hardly st-t-t-t-t-have a hard time stutt-tt-tt-tt-erring anymore.

:..:...:...:... ;D